Jango Creates an Ad Network Based on Music Affinity

Internet radio player Jango has launched a vertical ad network with targeting based on what it calls “artist clusters.”

Clusters are determined by users’ listening preferences, and can be based on genres of music or more narrowly defined groups of artists. The thinking goes, a particular advertiser may discover fans of certain artists provide higher click-through and engagement metrics. In a recent test, Jango matched advertiser Dodge with an artist cluster that includes Keith Urban and Justin Timberlake. Armani Exchange was paired with an artist cluster containing Coldplay and John Mayer.

The new network will extend that approach to a range of partner sites, including Ultimate Guitar, LyricsFreak.com, and other streaming music services, blogs, lyrics sites, Web zines, and fan sites. Advertisers include Microsoft Zune, Amazon, US Cellular, and Gevalia.

Ad targeting is honed over time for each brand. “If we don’t have any experience with a certain category, product, or advertiser, the way we start is by running an advertiser on all different artist pages,” said Jango CEO Dan Kaufman. Kaufman said a Hollywood advertiser is testing trailers for a pair of movies: one horror film and another romance. Results are then compared by artist content pages and the favorable artists and music genres are identified for the campaigns. “The next time we do a campaign for something similar, we’re going to at least have a starting point.”

Budgets typically start at $10,000 for a CPM-based ad buy, though “pricing is flexible depending on the size of the buy,” said Kaufman. “And it also depends on if it’s an area where we’re trying to get knowledge that we’re trying to offer to advertisers.”

Jango also has a existing relationship with an outside sales rep firm, Q1 Media, which it will continue to work with to sell inventory across the network.

Simultaneous to the network launch, Jango is exiting its beta phase. A redesign of the site went live the Saturday before the Jango Music Network was announced yesterday.